FAQ: How to hide columns in OpenOffice.org Calc [Show / Hide]

In OpenOffice and NeoOffice, you can show and hide rows and columns. This is useful as you may want the data to be included in the sheet, however you may not necessarily want all the data viewable. Note that this does NOT delete the data. It merely hides the column.

You may have columns of data and wish to hide one column from view.

Hiding a Column

To hide a column, right mouse click (or Control-Click for Mac users) on the letter at the top of the column. This will highlight the column, as well as make a menu appear.

Select ‘Hide’ from the menu.

Right click on the letter at the top of the column (header) and select 'Hide'

The column should disappear from view.

Note in the image below, you can see column C and column E, but column D is not visible.

Column D is not visible

Showing a Column (Excel: unhide)

To make the column visible, click on the C and E columns, highlighting them both, and then right click (or control-click) and select ‘Show’ from the menu, like this:

Highlight the columns on each side of the invisible column, then right click (Control-Click) and select 'Show' from the menu

Additional Resources

Comments

Can’t figure out how to show the left most column when it is hidden. Suppose Col A in the example above had been deliberately hidden, how would I show it again? you can’t clci on col A because it ain’t there!

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